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Witnesses are being asked about Jared Kushner's efforts to secure financing for his family's real estate properties, focusing specifically on his discussions during the transition with individuals from Qatar, Turkey and others

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Trump Will Leave Security Clearance Decision Up to Gen. Kelly

President Trump was asked to address interim security clearance for White House staff members after Rob Porter and Jared Kushner security clearances were scrutinized during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcom. Trump said that he will leave that decision up to chief of staff Gen. John Kelly.

(Published Friday, Feb. 23, 2018)

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team is scrutinizing whether any of Jared Kushner's business discussions with foreigners during the presidential transition later shaped White House policies in ways designed to either benefit or retaliate against those he spoke with, witnesses who have been interviewed in the Russia investigation told NBC News.

Witnesses are being asked about Kushner's efforts to secure financing for his family's real estate properties, focusing specifically on his discussions during the transition with individuals from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates. The family real estate business, Kushner Companies, approached Qatar multiple times, including last spring, about investing in its Fifth Avenue property, which is facing roughly $1.4 billion in debt that is due in 2019, but the government declined.

Kushner also held a Trump Tower meeting during the transition in December 2016 with former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, or HBJ, to seek funding for the property. Those talks continued after Kushner entered the White House and stepped away from the business, but last spring HBJ decided against investing. In the weeks after the Qatari government and HBJ talks collapsed, the White House strongly backed an economically punishing blockade against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, citing the country's support for terrorism as the impetus. Kushner, who is both President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser, has played a major role in Trump's Middle East policy and has developed close relationships with the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The White House, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have said the blockade against Qatar is in retaliation for their government’s support for terrorism. Though some top Qatari government officials believe the White House's position was a form of retaliation from Kushner.

Following a series of tweets President Trump sent over the weekend in response to the Parkland, Florida, shooting and the indictment of 13 Russian nationals who tried to sow discord in the 2016 U.S. election, the White House agreed that Russia tried to meddle with the 2016 election but maintained that there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.